This invention relates to a process for the recovery of hydrocarbon gas or vapors from hydrocarbon liquids and to apparatus for effecting such recovery. More particularly, this invention relates to separation of entrained hydrocarbon gas from crude oil prior to passing the oil to storage.
In the past, crude oil withdrawn from an oil well has been passed to a heater treater or separator for separation of water and hydrocarbon vapors from the oil, and the oil is thereafter passed to oil storage tanks. Normally, there is a considerable amount of hydrocarbon vapors entrained in the oil passed from the heater treater to the storage tanks. When a certain preset or predetermined pressure is reached inside the storage tanks, the hydrocarbon vapors are released into the atmosphere resulting in waste as well as atmospheric pollution.